Baffle Gab
Baffle Gab Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Write an original story using the five game words before the timer runs out. You earn Bone Bucks for every word used correctly. The first player to get 100 Bone Bucks wins!
Get Ready to Play
Shuffle all Baffle Gab word cards and return them to the card box. Choose a player to be the banker and stack all of the Bone Bucks next to that person. Give each player a pad and a pencil.
Playing the Game
- The person to the left of the banker draws five cards from the card box and places them bone-side-up in the center of play. All players use the same five Baffle Gab words drawn for each round.
- Read the game words out loud once. Turn the timer over and all players begin writing a sentence or story using the five Baffle Gab words with as many of their own words as they want.
- When the timer runs out the banker will call, "Time's up!" Stop writing even if your sentence isn't finished!
- Each player reads his or her story out loud, beginning with the person who drew the cards for the round. The player to the left of the first reader reads next and so on until all players have read their stories. Challenges can be made as soon as a player reads a story out loud. Turn the cards over to see the definition of the challenged game word to determine whether the challenge is correct.
- Count the point values from the bone side of the word cards and add up the total points for words used correctly in your story. You can double your points for a story if you have all five game words in one sentence! Collect your Bone Bucks from the banker.
- Time for the next round! Take out five new cards to begin a new round.
- The first player to get 100 Bone Bucks wins!
Important
- Your sentences must be complete, make sense, and read as a story in order to earn Bone Bucks, and you may write as many sentences as you want to create your story.
- Use 1-point game words only once in your story. If used more than once, neither use will count.
- 2-point game words may be used twice. The second use will only count if you have used each of the five game words in your story once prior to the second use of the two point word.
- You may not use more than two game words in a row in your story.
Gabby's Tips
- You can use a different form of a game word by adding suffixes like -s, -ed, -ing, or -ly; or prefixes like re-, de-, or un-; or by using the word as a different part of speech (for example, an adjective or verb used as a noun). Just remember to create words that can be found in a dictionary.
- Do not write a word down before timed play begins and don't look for definitions.
- Discuss what game words mean only when challenged or after a round of play.
- Do not use a game word as a proper noun by capitalizing the first letter so you can use it as the name of someone or something. For example, if you get the word "WHIMPER" do not write "Ms. Whimper was my teacher".
Challenging Other Players
- You can challenge another player's use of a game word after their story is read out loud. To do this, tell the player which word is being challenged.
- To challenge a game word you must use the word in a sentence or define it before checking the definition.
- Based on the definition on the back of the card or in a dictionary, the challenge is determined to be either correct or incorrect. If the challenger doesn't use or define the challenged word correctly, the challenged player will earn the word's points even if that player's original use is found to be incorrect during the challenge.
- If you correctly challenge a player's story you will earn Bone Bucks for each use of the challenged word in the story. The challenged player will not earn any points for correctly challenged words.
- If you challenge a word incorrectly you will have to subtract its points value from your own score.
- Challenged players don't earn double point scores for single sentences with all five game words if any game word in the sentence is found to have been used incorrectly.
- There can only be one challenge for each game word per player's story each round of play. However, if another player's use is also incorrect, the first challenger to call it takes the points.
Scoring
- Only complete sentences qualify for points!
- Add all Bone Buck points for game words and challenges.
- Give double points for game words used correctly in a single complete sentence that features all five game words. Include any correct second use of 2-point words in that sentence.
- Give no points for any 1-point game word used more than once.
- Give no points to 2-point game words used a second time if all five game words weren't used first.
- Give no points for game words used as proper nouns.
- Give no points for a game word discovered to be used in a sentence incorrectly.
- When more than two game words are used in a row give no points for those words.
- Players collect the correct number of Bone Bucks from the banker.
Examples of Stories and Scoring
The five game words in these examples are dread, umbrella, aimless, crocodile and whimper.
3 Bone Bucks: The crocodile was dreading her trip to the zoo and so wandered aimlessly around the house. She began to whimper as the rain started and she .... (3 points for three game words worth 1 point each used correctly in a finished sentence. No points for the game word in the unfinished sentence.)
16 Bone Bucks: An aimless crowd of crocodiles gathered and started moving toward me while I whimpered with dread and poked at them with my umbrella. If it weren't for that umbrella, I don't know what I would have done. (14 points for all five game words used in one sentence. 2 points for using a 2-point word a second time.)
0 Bone Bucks: I didn't dread whimpering. My umbrella hit the crocodile. I was aimless. (No points for sentences that don't work together to tell a story.)
0 Bone Bucks: The crocodile's dreaded umbrella was torn, but I don't know what whimper means and I couldn't figure out how to get aimless into the story. (No points for more than two game words in a row. No points for game words used without telling a story.)
Try Something Different
- Use more than or fewer than five cards to increase or decrease the level of difficulty.
- Each player may draw his or her own five cards per round of play.
- Set up teams and follow standard rules, or have each team draw its own five cards. The first team to earn 200 Bone Bucks wins the game.
- Play for a designated period of time. The player with the highest score wins.
Note to Parents, Teachers, and Homeschoolers
- The definitions on the cards are only basic definitions. Use of a dictionary is suggested.
- Ask players to choose their favorite story written during a one-minute round and expand it into a larger story.
- Create an art project by having children illustrate their stories and bind them as a book. Please see the Teachers and Parents pages on our Web site for examples and other great ideas.
- When playing with young children, you may choose:
- a. Not to double the points when adults use all five game words in a single sentence.
- b. Not to count the second use of a 2-point word by adults.
- c. To discuss the meaning of words prior to the one-minute round.
- d. To ask the child to use game words and tell the story orally rather than write it out.